I need to quickly get an understanding of the bicycle industry, and the positioning of different
brands. Is there a common view of how separate brand images compare?

Any significant differences between Europe and North America ? Racing vs off-road ?

I'd be very thankful to anyone providing his/her own ranking of brand image among bicycles!

/jh

In article <5oc_9.8300$FF4.515117@newsb.telia.net>, j_hellaker <hellaker@telia.com> wrote:
>I need to quickly get an understanding of the bicycle industry, and the positioning of different
>brands. Is there a common view of how separate brand images compare?

Companies that sell at Walmart suck. Companies that sell at bike shops are mostly pretty good. The
largest bike shop brands sell a wide range products from adequate to very good. There are also a few
small volume brands that sell only high end products (usually starting at about $2000).

On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 16:27:45 GMT, "j_hellaker" <hellaker@telia.com> wrote:

This is one man's view only.

>I'd be very thankful to anyone providing his/her own ranking of brand image among bicycles!

There are too many makers and models to make that a straightforward task. Normally the price tag
tells you all you need to know - and if you think the price tag may be out, you simply weigh the
bike and see how light it is :-)

Well, that's not strictly true. I suppose most countries will ahve their own favourites (Cannondale
was never as popular in the UK as the US). In the UK Dawes have a good name for making reliable,
functional bikes - the Galaxy has been the benchmark for tourers for decades. They are barely known
outside the UK, as far as I know. Raleigh has a terrible reputation here, but are well thought of in
the USA according to Shaldon Brown (may his beard increase). My local bike shop -
http://www.awcycles.co.uk - have a fairly wide range, you won't find anything truly nasty in there,
and they cater for, in my estimation, most of the racing and touring cyclists in Reading (population
something over 140,000). They lead with Colnago, but also feature Principia and Bianchi quite
heavily. Bianchi sell a wide range of bikes, but Principia and Colnago seem to specialise in road
racers, so would attract more cachet - but once you move out of the budget bikes (under $500) the
fit is everything, and you buy what most closely matches your own body geometry.

Also in the UK there are craft cycle makers like Evans, Longstaff, and the excellent Chas.
Roberts, who make bikes for a certain market. Roberts, for example, has a peerless reputaion with
audax riders - they make really well crafted, finely balanced and light tourers. How many bikes do
they produce per year? I'm guessing, but I'd be surprised if it was more than one or two thousand,
and even that might be a huge overestimate. These are exceptional bikes, but rarely seen outside
of the UK.

Is the Trek brand stronger because of Lance? I don't think so - maybe it is, but I still want a
Principia or a Colnago. Plus a New Series Moulton, a Windcheetah, a Bike Friday tandem. Spot the
bike weenie....

One thing, though - in road cycling anything with Campagnolo kit is usually reckoned to be a step up
from a Shimano-equipped bike.

Guy
===
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j_hellaker wrote:
> I need to quickly get an understanding of the bicycle industry, and the positioning of different
> brands. Is there a common view of how separate brand images compare?
>
> Any significant differences between Europe and North America ? Racing vs off-road ?
>
> I'd be very thankful to anyone providing his/her own ranking of brand image among bicycles!

Campagnolo = good. Huffy = bad. Lance's ride = good. Greg's ride = was very good. Price can equal
quality. More often equals more money than sense. Bowden Spacelander = top of the heap. HTH
--Karen M.

On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 17:00:38 +0000 (UTC), no@sp.am ejaculated:

>In article <5oc_9.8300$FF4.515117@newsb.telia.net>, j_hellaker <hellaker@telia.com> wrote:
>>I need to quickly get an understanding of the bicycle industry, and the positioning of different
>>brands. Is there a common view of how separate brand images compare?
>
>Companies that sell at Walmart suck. Companies that sell at bike shops are mostly pretty good. The
>largest bike shop brands sell a wide range products from adequate to very good. There are also a
>few small volume brands that sell only high end products (usually starting at about $2000).

I concur. When I went looking for my latest bike, I was looking for comfort, responsiveness
as well as lightness as I was racing then. I ended up buying a Cannondale after test riding
most of the brands in the bike store, even though I had not even considered that brand
prior. Most of us are more concerned with the bike rather than the brand name. The
supermarket brands are just not worth looking at since I know of people who have had
capastrophic mechanical failures while riding them. A while back, KMart, I believe, ran a
newspaper ad showing one of their bikes with the fork on backwards! Generally, you get what
you pay for. Cheers, Ken (NY) Chairman, Department Of Redundancy Department
____________________________________

A reminder: Why we are fighting: http://www.geocities.com/bluesguy68/AmericaAttacked.htm

email: http://www.geocities.com/bluesguy68/email.htm

There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The
rest of them have to pee on the electric fence. -Will Rogers

> Any bike sold by somebody who "needed to quickly get an experience in the bicycle industry",
> becsause he couldn't tell a bad bike from a good one, I think would be virtually guaranteed to be
> a real dog.

" I am not in the process of buying a bike, " .. and neither am I going to be marketing/selling
bikes, so don't worry

Anyway your first part was very helpful for my purpose. (I liked the Shimano/MS analogy)

It is interesting - and refreshing - to find an industry that, from what I hear here, is driven only
by real product value, and obviously does not suffer from any marketing hype at all. Really
interesting.